The Timeline with DBS in Parkinson's Disease

1997- First approval to treat the tremors found in Parkinson's disease

2002- Approved to treat on the more advanced symtopms of Parkinson's Disease

2016- Latest approval to treat individuals with the premature symptoms of Parkinson's Disease

Importance

It has been proven that Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy helps people who are struggling with Parkinson's Disease. Again, while there is no cure for Parkinson's Disease, DBS has shown tremendous significance and importance in both its advancements medically and therapeutically. Studies have shown the benefits of DBS to last for up to five years. These benefits have included decreasing experiences with tremors and alleviating spells (Parkinson's Foundation, n.a.).

Research has shown that DBS has a remarkably higher impact on speech and language with comparison to other surgeries like Thalamotomy. Patients who under went Thalamotomy surgery were also at higher risk for speech impairment.The research shown was based on patients with and without essential tremors. DBS allows for paitents to adjust their Implantable Pulse Generator (IPG). The tradeoff for patients with essential tremors allowed them to lower their DBS/IPG settings to counteract their speech difficulty but left them susceptible to tremors. For patients without essential tremors associated with Parkinson's Disease, they did not have to make adjustments to account for their speech and language difficulties (Alomar et al., 2016).

While the benefits of DBS associated with Speech and Language is not a guarantee, it has shown significant adjustment for patients with PD. The benefits are based on patient's tremor diagnosis but the results still implicate positive outcomes (Alomar et al., 2016).